In the past, people who were required to identify themselves and their automobiles in parking situations as being handicapped or as having special parking privileges have often used a hanging placard device to make such identifications. Such placards are made of a relatively thin plastic or cardboard-like material having the appropriate identification insignia printed on either side. These placards are generally about twice the size of an average playing card and are constructed with an integral hook-like apparatus built into the upper portion of the body of the placard. The hook is used to hang the placard over the horizontally extending mirror post that is commonly used to mount the interior rear view mirror to the inside of a vehicle windshield. This placement of the placard on the rearview mirror post positions it in a manner that is highly visible from the exterior of the vehicle allowing parking enforcement workers to easily identify it as belonging to a specific authorized class of vehicle operators.
One problem with this method of vehicle identification is that the positioning of the placard on the mirror post can interfere with a driver's line of sight during vehicle operation. This occurs because, in order for the placard to be clearly visible from the exterior of the vehicle, its body must hang down near the center of the vehicle's windshield. The placement of the placard in this position creates a blind spot in a driver's field of vision. This blind spot can be extremely dangerous to the safe operation of a vehicle as objects such as pedestrians and small vehicles can be hidden from the driver which creates especially dangerous conditions in right turn situations.
The most common way to deal with this problem is to remove the placard during vehicle operation. While the placard's removal is an effective way to resolve the problem of the blind spot, it creates additional problems of its own. The first of these is that an operator that is in a hurry very often forgets to properly position the placard prior to leaving his vehicle in a restricted parking spot. This can lead to unnecessary and expensive parking tickets. Additionally, the removal of the placard during vehicle operation can, and very often does, result in its loss. Again, this can lead to expensive and unnecessary parking tickets and the expense and aggravation of replacing the placard.
From the forgoing discussion it can be seen that it would be advantageous to provide a method of displaying parking identification placards which allows them to be easily recognized from the exterior of the vehicle. Additionally, it would be advantageous to provide such a method that would allow the placard to be easily stored out of sight during vehicle operation in a manner which allows it to be quickly and easily deployed when parking in restricted spots.